Dear Contractor Doctor,
I'm looking to go contracting and am interested working for part time. Perhaps
2-3 days a week or perhaps cycles of 3 months work followed by 3 months
holidays. Is there much demand for this type of working arrangement?
Thanks
[Name supplied]
Contractor Doctor says:
Good question. This is something that that permanent staff who contemplate
contracting often ask. The 2-3 days per week scenario is an entirely
different market to the full time contract scenario.
Let's first discuss the 2-3 days a week scenario.
2-3 days a week
Contracts of this nature are very rare indeed and are rarely advertised. That is not to say they do not
exist, but they are not the most common mode of working.
The 2-3 days per week tend to be much shorter contracts. Perhaps 1 to 2 months.
As such, the agency needs to make more money to fund the sales operation. Thus,
the margins will either be significantly higher, like 30%+, or the rates will
be large, like £800+ per day. Bear in mind that the rate needs to be high from
the consultants point of view since they need to fund the fact they do not
work as much.
The type of work tends to be for very senior consultants who have 10+
years experience and provide training and mentoring. Occasionally you get the
odd development role for up to a couple of weeks but these are rare.
There are agencies who target this market. They tend to have a network of very
senior consultants on their books who they can call on at short notice.
You will need to surf the internet and pick up the phone to locate them. To do
this type of work will require more from you on the sales and self marketing
aspects of yourself. Having your own web site and publishing some articles or
doing seminars tends to be a good way to get known.
The other way of working 2-3 days per week is do do fixed price work. With
fixed price, provided you meet the deadline, the working time is fully
flexible. This work is again hard to find. You'll also possibly need to risk
doing the requirements specification work for free before giving a formal
quotation. There are some websites that offer you the chance to bid for
work.
3 months on then 3 months off
This mode of working is much easier to do and the more realistic option. You
simply do not renew your contract after 3 months and take a holiday!
However, bear in mind that most contracts are a minimum of 6 months with
extensions and the client will expect you to renew if you are in the middle of
a project.
It would not be a good idea to indicate to an agent that you have no intention
to renew a possible contract - doing so would seriously reduce your number of
interviews. Remember, their ideal situation is to get you into a
position and keep taking a percentage forever.
If you do decide to leave a contract, or not renew then make sure you give the
client plenty of notice so they can mitigate the risk, get a replacement and do
a hand over. Make sure you do not burn bridges by just suddenly not
turning up the next day!
One other point: Don't take more than about a year off between contracts. It
will make it much harder to get an interview next time as your skills might not
be up to scratch.
Good luck contracting!
Contractor Doctor
Updated Monday, January 02, 2006, [Originally published Wednesday, May 12, 2004]
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